WHEN actress Julie Graham found herself stranded on an island off the mainland of Shetland, she didn’t panic.

She just phoned up the ferry skipper, acted the damsel in distress and charmed him into coming to rescue her from a rocky outcrop in the north Atlantic.

The 48-year-old was on the islands to film the second series of BBC cop drama Shetland and took a day off to explore the archipelago around the mainland.

In testament to the power of the rugged landscape, or perhaps just the folly of someone who’s lived a metropolitan lifestyle on the south coast of England for more than two decades, Julie paid no heed to the ferry timetable and missed the last boat off Mousa.

“I just happened to get the time wrong,” said the Scots actress.

Julie. left, and the cast of the Bletchley Circle

“So I just rang up the ferryman. He asked me if I could just wait until tomorrow but I told him I needed to get back now and he eventually said he’d come and get me.

“He was a bit grumpy but, when I got on the boat, I just charmed the pants off him and we had a laugh.

“You wouldn’t get that kind of service in many other places. It was an adventure in itself and by the time I got off the boat we were the best of friends.”

Julie spent 12 days filming the series in various Shetland locations. Away from home, the large cast and crew bonded with nights in various Lerwick watering holes.

She said: “There was a lot of socialising, of course, when everyone’s together like that away on location. Nothing wild or hedonistic. A few jars were sunk. But we did manage to stay out of Posers [Shetland’s only nightclub]. I poked my head in and thought, ‘Nope, not for me.’

“I loved Shetland, though. It’s bleak, with no trees, and it’s very stark, which is what makes it work so well for the show. It’s very beautiful.”

Julie in SciFi series Survivors

An extended on-location shoot represents a change from the first series, which drew criticism from Shetlanders who scoffed that some of the exterior shots last time around were filmed in places such as Irvine, Ayrshire.

Which is to say nothing about the accents, with only local boy Steven Robertson escaping much of the critics’ ire on that score.

Julie plays straight-talking procurator fiscal Rhona Kelly in the second series, which was filmed between Shetland and the BBC’s Dumbarton studios.

“She’s the big cheese, she’s tough but fair. Her and Perez (leading man Douglas Henshall) are friends, as well as colleagues, and have mutual respect for each other. He takes her advice, she dishes it out.”

Julie lives in Brighton with her kids Edie and Cyd. She has lived away from Scotland since she was a teenager.

Consequently, she doesn’t have the right to vote in the referendum come September.

But it doesn’t stop her having a point of view. And how.

“It doesn’t annoy me that I can’t vote,” she said. “I think people who live in Scotland should decide the fate of where they live. I’m undecided about the whole question. At first I thought it was a bad idea, I just didn’t think it would work. But I’ve been talking to a lot to friends and relatives up there and I’m really surprised at how many of them are leaning towards the Yes campaign.

“ I think the reason for that is the reaction against this awful British government that we have, who are, in my view, appalling.

“People have been swayed to the Yes vote because they see the alternative as these hideous Eton posh boys who don’t live in the real world and are extremely callous when it comes to people who are disadvantaged, especially when it comes to the welfare state. I really do think the Yes campaign gathered a lot of support as an antidote to this awful coalition government. Those recent stories about these millionaires and their empty mansions – they live abroad and leave these mansions empty, decaying, and they’re not being taxed on them.

“The whole thing is completely skewed. The only people suffering under this government are the poor. So I can completely understand why some people would want to vote Yes. I just don’t know if I’m completely convinced of all the arguments yet.”

Julie will be familiar to many from the Thelma and Louise-style Peugeot car adverts she starred in. She’s also appeared in Britflicks such as Nuns on The Run, The Big Man and Bedrooms and Hallways, and on TV in At Home With The Braithwaites and William and Mary, with more recent roles in BBC dramas Survivors and The Bletchley Circle.

Whatever the referendum outcome, she often thinks about moving back to Scotland.

“If they could change the weather, I’d move home in a second. No doubt about it,” she said. That and the perceived lack of work north of the Border.

She said: “It’s shocking actually that there’s not more made in Scotland.

“There’s such a wealth of talent on both sides of the camera in Scotland.

“Not enough is made up there and that’s always been a real gripe of mine.

“I don’t understand it. I know they have Outlander (the big budget historical romance series based on the novels of Diana Gabaldon, which is currently being filmed in Cumbernauld).

“But why isn’t there a big film studio like there is in Belfast, which has gained so much from having Game of Thrones and so on? We don’t do ourselves justice.